Children and Young People’s Mental Health: Taking Early Action

Overview

One in 10 children suffers from depression, anxiety or another diagnosable mental health problem, and 75% of mental illness starts before the age of 18. Official figures from NHS Digital show admissions for under-18s self-harm have been increasing for five years in a row. Adding to it an estimated £105bn costs every year on mental ill health, prioritising children’s mental health is essential.

The Government’s Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce launched Future in Mind in 2015, endorsed by NHS England’s own five-year plan for mental health. Extra funding of £250m each year until 2020 was designated to implement its core principles and to make a significant shift towards the prevention of ill health and the integration of services working with schools to strengthen resilience and improve support before health deteriorates.

However, according to The Commission on Children and Young People’s Mental Health’s final report, Time to Deliver, in the first year of the promised investment, only £143m was released instead of the £250m expected. Mental health providers have reported that the money failed to reach frontline services, with many still seeing cuts to their budgets. The Government for this new financial year has pledged to invest in child and adolescent mental health services with £140 million of NHS funding allocated to clinical commissioning groups. However, Royal College of Psychiatrists’ analysis says NHS bodies in some areas are spending little more than £2 per child despite surging demand on services.

Following the Future in Mind report, we know what an effective and modern children’s mental health service should look like, and we have a roadmap for how to get there. Now is everyone’s responsibility to deliver on it so that all young people receive the support they need to flourish and achieve their full potential.

Join us at Children and Young People’s Mental Health: Taking Early Action to hear practical advice and guidance that will help you to improve access and outcomes, reduce inequality and implement The Five Forward View principles across Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

By 2020/21 there will be significant expansion in access to high-quality mental health care for children and young people. NHS England’s Implementing The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health report sets a national target of at least 70,000 more children and young people benefiting from improved access to evidence-based treatment. To help meet the targets all local areas are required to have in place an expanded and refreshed Local Transformation Plans for children and young people’s mental health detailing how extra funds will be committed to support their ambitions across the whole local system.

Improving outcomes for children and young people will require a joint-agency approach, including action to intervene early and build resilience. NHS England has set out aims to work with partner organisations across health, education, youth justice, children’s services, the voluntary and independent sectors to consider how to deliver improvements in access to community based services. In delivering this expansion Clinical Commissioning Groups have been tasked to commission improved access to 24/7 crisis resolution and liaison mental health services which are appropriate for children and young people.

Further national programmes for vulnerable groups include: developing specialist services for children with complex needs in the justice system; developing a framework of integrated care for the secure estate; collaborative commissioning networks; testing integrated personal budgets for looked after children, care leavers and adopted children; and transforming care for those with a learning disability and/ or autism. NHS England has also announced plans to pump-prime funding during 2016/17 to test and evaluate models of crisis resolution for children and young people.

To reduce health inequalities, the Government has pledged to invest in child and adolescent mental health services, with £140 million of NHS funding allocated to clinical commissioning groups for 2017/18, with an additional £30 million for eating disorder services. However, The Commission on Children and Young People’s Mental Health’s final report, Time to Deliver, ensures that from the £250m funding agreed only £143m was released in the first year, and only £75m was distributed to CCGs. This could be the reason why local NHS areas are spending less than £10 a head on the mental health of children and young people in their communities as the recently launched Royal College of Psychiatrists’ report.

Children and Young People’s Mental Health: Taking Early Action will detail how objectives and targets set out in the Five Year Forward View can be made a reality. The agenda will focus on how mental health care for children and young people will be revolutionised by improving access to high quality care, promoting early interventions and driving greater collaborations across the care system and wider public sector.

Keynote Address

Young people’s mental health problems are reinforced by other problems like education and employment. Charities like YoungMinds are building strong partnerships with like-minded organisations, including NHS mental health services, to signpost and provide a more holistic service for young people.

There is much work underway following Future in Mind and the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, with a major emphasis on access and quality, and work on the Evidence Based Treatment Pathways for Crisis Care and Generic CYP Mental Health Services. In NHS England we remain focussed on delivery of our existing plans, as well as using the opportunity to enhance joined up working across education and social care to improve outcomes.

The first step is to encourage a healthy pregnancy. Nationally, suicide is one of the leading causes of maternal deaths. At least one in ten women is affected by mental disorders in the perinatal period and 5% will experience a major depressive episode. NHS England awarded almost £3m in November 2016 for a Perinatal Mental Health Community Service across the London boroughs of Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster.

10:30

Main Sponsor

"Building Healthcare Models that Adapt to the Needs and Lifestyles of Young People and their Families"

There has been a significant shift in the lifestyles of young people and families over the last 10 years driven by the evolution of technology and transformation of industries such as shopping, banking and music. This shift in lifestyle means young people and their families are having different expectations on how they would like to engage and receive healthcare services. This talk will cover how new adaptable healthcare models are essential in successfully engaging with young people and their families for best outcomes, and, how these new models will also drive both an evolution and revolution in areas of prevention, treatment and management of care.

10:50

Question and Answer Session

11:15

Coffee in the Networking Area

This talk will explore the progress in transforming children and young people’s mental health care in England since the publication of Future in Mind, a government strategy to improve services published in March 2015, alongside a commitment to invest £1.25bn over five years.

Case Study

"Kooth: How Online Counselling Can Provide an Early Intervention Solution for CYP Mental Health"

Kooth (from XenZone) is an online counselling and emotional well-being service for children and young people. Commissioned in Hertfordshire since March 2016, this presentation will explore how Kooth has provided children and young people in Hertfordshire with a stigma-free and easily accessible pathway to mental health support. We will explore the Kooth model and service usage from young people in Hertfordshire and the impact this is having on the community.

12:40

Rt Hon Prof Paul Burstow, Chair , The Social Care Institute for Excellence and President of the Telecare Services Association (confirmed)

"What Would a Good Children and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper Look Like?"

Drawing on his experience as the Minister for Mental Health who commissioned the CYP IAPT CAMHS transformation programme, his work as Chair of the Tavistock and Portman NHS FT and the University of Birmingham Mental Health Policy Commission he is leading. Paul Burstow will set out his proposals for delivering better mental health support for children and young people.

Increased prevalence of eating disorders, increasing treatment cost and still limited evidence based interventions. This talk will focus on the application of treatment principles to the development of services for young people with anorexia nervosa. How does thinking about the bigger picture promote the use of integrated services?

Many schools already support their pupils’ mental health, but with training and support all schools can play their part in the wider system to support children and young people’s mental health. The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition worked with Public Health England, to develop a framework to help schools understand how implementing the key principles of a whole school approach can help promote emotional health and wellbeing within schools. The Coalition was a co-sponsor of the Values Based Commission, which is being implemented in the Schools NorthEast Commission, Healthy MindED.

15:05

Case Study

"Joining the Dots: The Role of Evidence-Based Parenting Programmes from Prevention to Treatment"

NICE compliant evidence-based parenting programmes, like Triple P, offer early intervention and treatment approaches that help stop the spiral into high cost crisis care. When deployed as a system Triple P provides dose-appropriate support for families across an area, demonstrating population health benefits, driving collaboration between stakeholders and easing pressure on waiting lists for CAMHS.

15:25

Question and Answer Session

15:40

Coffee in the Networking Area

15:55

Dr Bernadka Dubicka, Chair of Child and Adolescent Faculty, Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) (confirmed)

"Reducing Health Inequalities"

The Government has pledged to invest in child and adolescent mental health services, with £119 million of NHS funding allocated to clinical commissioning groups for this financial year and another £140 million promised for 2017/18, with an additional £30 million for eating disorder services. However, as the recently launched Royal College of Psychiatrists’ report shows, local NHS areas are spending less than £10 a head on the mental health of children and young people in their communities.